Whitey Bulger’s barber remembers him as big tipper

Tuesday

John ‘Terry” Terranova of Pembroke sold his barbershop in South Boston not long after one of his best tippers, reputed mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger, disappeared in 1995.

John ‘‘Terry” Terranova sold his barbershop in South Boston not long after one of his best tippers, reputed mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger, disappeared.

“I knew I wasn’t gonna get the big tips anymore so I just closed up,” Terranova joked as he talked about his clientele at Terry’s Barbershop, the business he ran for 48 years at the corner of East 7th and I streets.

Terranova, 79, and his wife retired to Pembroke and he now works occasionally at the South Weymouth Barbershop.

The South Boston native said Bulger used to give him $50 for a haircut. “And that was when a haircut was $6,” Terranova said.

He began trimming Bulger’s nickname-worthy locks after “Jimmy,” as he was called by everyone in the neighborhood, was released from prison in 1965. Bulger had served a nine-year stretch for a bank robbery, part of it in Alcatraz. Everyone knew who he was.

“When he first got out of prison, he took over the Mullen gang,” Terranova said. “Everyone knew that.”

Cutting Bulger’s hair wasn’t without risk, he added.

“So he would sit in my chair with a paper bag – with a gun in there – and he’d say, ‘Terry if you notice anyone coming through that door that you don’t recognize, let me know,’” Terranova recalled. “And I’m thinking, where can I escape?”

Former state Senate President William Bulger was a customer at Terry’s first and introduced his older brother to Terranova.

Terranova recalled that James Bulger was always “the perfect gentleman” with him and would tip his hat to women. But he had a temper. He did not like being called Whitey.

“Hated being called Whitey,” Terranova said. “In fact, I had a barber working for me one time that called him Whitey and he jumped all over him, ‘Don’t you dare call me Whitey!’”

Disgraced former FBI agent John “Zip” Connolly – who is about to begin a 40-year sentence in Florida for murder – was also a customer, and a friend.

Terranova went to Connolly’s first wedding and used to play handball with him. He began cutting Connolly’s thick hair when the future G-man was about 10 years old.

“He was a bit of a showboat,” Terranova recalled. “He loved the best of everything and was always telling me that I should buy a new stereo for the shop so we could play some Sinatra.”

Connolly, 71, who for decades smoothed the way for Bulger and his partner, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, to run their criminal network with impunity, was also generous, Terranova said.

“Whenever he’d go on a trip he’d bring a bottle of booze back for me,” he said. “I feel so sorry for him now. He enjoyed life so much. I can’t imagine what’s it like for him now.”

The barber from Southie said he, like most people, was shocked to hear of Bulger’s capture in Santa Monica, Calif., last week. Bulger, 81, and his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, 60, of Quincy, had been wanted since early 1995.

“There’s something crazy there,” Terranova said of the mid-week arrests.

Now that Bulger is back, in an 8-by-12-foot cell at the Plymouth County jail, Terranova and everyone back in the old neighborhood are waiting to hear what he will say.

Terranova said he’s not convinced his longtime customer did everything he’s accused of, including 19 murders and decades of drug dealing, extortion and other crimes.

“It’s kind of hard to believe, you know?” Terranova said. “And of course everything gets exaggerated I think anyway. He’s probably going to get blamed for a million things he didn’t do. I’m not saying he was an angel but you know, I liked him. He put money in my pocket.”

Material from Wicked Local Weymouth News was used in this report.

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